Learned Something New

Kid #2 reached a milestone this weekend. (Apologies to the Helmet Police.) We've never really had a good place to learn to ride a bike without training wheels, and despite his "all-boy"-ness, this guy is more cautious and fearful than you might think. So he wasn't ready before. And then, boom, he's suddenly got it and not just shakily riding a few feet then falling. He's jetting down the hill.

He's grown a lot this year: lost his first teeth, learned to blow a gum bubble, whistle, snap his fingers, jump on the low dive, and ride a bike. Next up: tie his shoes...dare I hope?

Weekly Wrap-Up/Homeschool Journal

In Our Homeschool This Week
We didn't start a new week in My Father's World because we had some catching up to do in other subjects. We are also working through the first sections of American Pioneers and Patriots. We hadn't read a chapter in Farmer Boy in a few weeks, so we got back to that. Tornado and I have really enjoyed his chapter on Whales in his science book, Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day, because one of our favorite shows (on Animal Planet) is Whale Wars. Dash had a stubborn week with phonics and math, so that took some time, too.

I did, however, introduce the boys to our 20 new Spelling Task Cards from Step into 2nd Grade. Often, one of our assignments in a workbox drawer will be to write out their spelling words or write them in a fun, silly way. Now I don't have to write out the instructions each time, and we have many more ideas to work with.

Tornado isn't going to be happy about this, but the interactive zoo picture is coming down this weekend. It's been hanging in the stairwell for several months. They work on it every once in awhile. I just think it's time.

We mailed a letter (which we do several times a year) to one of the kids we sponsor. Enrique lives in El Salvador.

Dash made these at co-op. They were learning about Indians and cave drawings. On the top picture, they traced their pictures with glue, then sprinkled sand on top. I commented that he forgot the face on the lower guy, and he reminded me, "They usually didn't include faces in cave drawings. And that's why they're stick figures."

What They're Playing This Week

The kids love to play "Mom and Dad" and "Baby," so how great is it when you can use a REAL baby? He barely even fits in Sissy's wooden cradle anymore (which is SO SAD since I had always meant to take pictures of him in it when he was tiny). He was funny; it was as if he sensed he was an integral part of the kids' pretend world, and he totally put up with it.

When the other two kids were at AWANA, Tornado took it upon himself to make stick puppets from magazine pictures and put on a play for Baby.

More About the Baby's Life This Week

I think Googie has enjoyed making Baby Brother laugh a lot lately. Goofy boy. He is such a happy guy. Right now he is almost 8 months old, and he loves to eat - not only Momma Milk but any mashed up food we give him. Today I put little pieces of soft banana on his highchair tray, hoping he could manage to grip it and stick it in his mouth. However...he took each piece, one at a time, and threw it on the floor.

What I'm Reading This Week

I went to my monthly Large Family Logistics book club this week. This week, the main topics were chores, child work ethic, and chore systems. I felt inspired when I got home. The kids began a new responsibility the next day. Together, they must empty the dishwasher every morning when they wake up. Hopefully, this will force me to make sure the dishwasher is ran every night. THEN maybe it will force everyone to put their dishes in the dishwasher after every meal. We all have really bad habits in this area.

I'm also reading Coming Home by Karen Kingsbury, the last book in the Baxter series. I've shed plenty of tears this week while reading it, but I'm sort of glad it's over. Most of the time I love her writing and it's very inspiring to me spiritually, but at times it's feels a little corny. Or maybe I'm just annoyed at the sad turn of events in Coming Home. I also feel like she makes conservative stereotypes, such as what was the point of the only "vegan" character I ever remember in her books being a non-Christian/not-very-nice-person?

What We Baked This Week

Banana Nut Bread

How We Spent Labor Day

We hit the rode for Hot Springs. 

First, we ate lunch at Garden Secrets.

Next, we went swimming at Lake Catherine State Park, a place we'd never been.

What Sissy Was Up to in Kindergarten This Week

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Sissy's Kindergarten Corner: Week #4

I didn't take too many school pictures this week. It felt like we were pretty busy with our co-op, etc. plus it was a 3-day weekend. One thing she enjoyed about her classes this week is a presentation her teacher gave on making healthy food choices. Ms. Tara demonstrated making homemade peanut butter, which they enjoyed on homemade bread. The 2nd grade class got to take part, too, so my 2nd grader liked it, as well.

AWANA started back up this week. Sis is a big girl now in Sparks with her brother. When Ryan was picking them up, a lady commented that the kids sure do look out for each other. Apparently, Sissy had been nervous and a little unsure of herself during some of the games she didn't know how to play. Dash actually comforted Sissy and held her hand, going alongside her. How sweet is that!

We had a few Chicka activities to finish up. They recently helped me glue self-stick magnet pieces onto craft poms for these kind of pages. 

We added our next title to our Book Gardens. This time instead of using it as a tracing activity, I had them follow the directions on this Easel Painting activity, adding stickers.

 She was able to add another word to her Fancy Nancy Word Wall: CAT.

 an activity from her Number Art book

 more counting patterns activities like this one

pictures she made for Mom and Dad

 A activities like this one

lots of letter and number writing

And something silly she said: 

Apparently, I hastily prepared her half of a peanut butter and fruit spread sandwich because I placed the cut top down facing the wrong direction - so the cut end was right on top of the crust end. Since one would typically eat from the cut side toward the crust, she flipped it around and said, "I don't know which side to start on."

First Leg of Our Cross Country Journey

At the end of May, I took my 7 year old son and baby (who was 4 months old at the time) on a cross country adventure. If you just thought, "You're crazy," - honestly, it wasn't difficult. I knew I wanted to take all of the big kids on their own special vacation. The baby, of course, will be in attendance anywhere I go the next two years or until I'm finished nursing, and I figured it's better to go before he's mobile and getting into everything. It just worked out to take Dash on the first trip. It felt fair because I had been on so many trips with Tornado before the other kids were born. We thought it would be nice for me to spend some alone time with Dash because he and I had butted heads a lot last year over schoolwork, etc. I had a romantic idea that we could solve all of our problems while riding the rails. Well, I can't say that is what happened per se, but we had a really nice trip that I feel he and I both cherished.

first short stop to step out of train for some fresh air

The train leaves out of Little Rock at 11:39. My first panic of the night was realizing I had forgotten to pack my son's DS. Now, playing video games is not what I wanted him to get out of this trip. But we're talking DAYS on a train. I assumed we would need some video game distraction from time to time. I started making this weird hyperventilating sound when I was sitting with Ryan in the car, waiting for the train. Tears were forming. I had even bought him two new games. All of the games were packed; the DS was not! I told Ryan to be prepared to mail it to our hotel, so we would at least have it on the trip home. (Well, we didn't end up doing that since it was cost-prohibitive and really, we just didn't need it, after all, thank goodness. Traveling on a train is really THAT fun.)

My next panic occurred shortly after we settled into our cozy sleeper room. The sleeper rooms were everything I hoped they would be. My mother doesn't understand this, but I just love small spaces. I am obsessed with dollhouses and miniatures. My siblings and I used to love the moments that our great aunt and uncle would let us step into their small travel trailer. It was so cute inside. (They even called it "the dollhouse.") We don't own a mini-van. I actually drive a miniature version of a mini-van. Speaking of cute things and travel trailers, Ryan and I are in current discussions over all things RV lately. I want to sell my house and live in one full-time! Squeals! We probably won't do that anytime soon, but we would like to own one. We'll see.

I had a little time on my hands later at one of 

the train stations to make my nails fancy!

Back to my panic...I settled Dash into his top bunk. The beds were already made up for us. My phone suddenly died. Not from lack of battery or being out of area; it just wouldn't turn back on. My week with no ability to converse with Ryan and no way to look up addresses while we're out and about flashed before my eyes, and it did not look good. Plus, all of my travel information was IN my phone. I predicted the first chance I would have to visit a Verizon store would be Monday at the earliest. Because there was nothing else I could do, I told the car attendant. I'm sure he was like, "Uh, lady, not my problem." Actually, he was very nice, and after about 30 minutes of feeling like it was 1993 again without cell service, he let me use his personal phone to call Ryan. Well, of course, my husband was able to offer the suggestion of pushing the power button and the other circle button at the same time for several seconds. It worked! Who knew?!

My son was Mr. Crabs the night before, so I was relieved when he woke up the next morning happy and ready to get a jump on reading. I wanted to focus some of our trip on practicing reading. I also let him purchase a few Star Wars easy readers. One of my goals on this trip was to proceed 100% into all things 7 year old boy. If he wanted to retell every action scene of every adventure-y, science fiction-y cartoon he's ever watched, I was all in, and I did not let my eyes glaze over once!

I vaguely recall the train sitting still on the tracks at some point during the night, but I was able to go right back to sleep. Apparently, there was a fire on or near the tracks, and we were stopped for an hour. When we got to the St. Louis station, we were allowed to step out for a few minutes. After I told him that my sister Cary and her family live very close to the train station, Dash was so upset that we couldn't go visit them. I think he was ready to end the trip then and there, if it meant getting to hang out with them.

Who was the best baby ever this week? This kid. I mean, he was perfect. Because I was always holding him and right with him, he never had a reason to cry. Here we were enjoying the view in the dining car. The kids always fight over time with the baby, so it was also nice for Dash to get some special baby time, too.

I already wrote about the food and dining car on my vegan blog. I was surprised that they seat you across the booth from other people. If you are traveling by yourself, they will seat you right next to someone else. Dash LOVED going to the dining car, and I knew he would. My other kids will love it whenever they get the opportunity, as well. It's similar to how they think it's way cool when they have gotten to eat off my maternity ward hospital trays.

Next stop: Chicago! It takes about 14 hours for a train trip from Little Rock to Chicago. It takes about 11 hours to drive the same distance. Not bad if you ask me, considering we slept the first 7 or 8 hours, then took another rest/naptime later in our little room.

Even though I know it gets colder in Chicago, we were not prepared for the very chilly days on our departing and return layovers out and about in the city. I had dressed Baby Brother in a sleeveless onesie (To me, the train ran more warm than cool, but I tend to always get hot.), so I wrapped my nursing cover around him. During our first layover (around 3 hours, I think), we were able to check our luggage into a locker (which cost us about something like $20 for the 2 hours we used them) and walk a few blocks to a vegan restaurant.

another shot of the dining car

One of the best things about the train ride: the term "slept like a baby" finally came into practice with my little man. This was the BEST night of sleep for him, up to this point of his life. The vibrating roar of the train gently kept him lulled him to sleep the whole time. He and I slept great, snuggled up to one another.

Dash slept in the top bunk. There is a strap the length of the bed  to help keep the top person on the bed. This gives you another idea of the size of the sleeper cars when the seats are made into beds at night. There's enough room between the bed and sliding door for a person about my size to stand facing in or out. There are little cubbies and spots (including steps to the top bunk) for luggage.

I purposely planned for one of our layovers to last a few hours in D.C. According to my trip planning studies, we would have time to visit a few of our nation's monuments, which are located relatively near the train station. It seemed we would be able to walk to a few of them. After getting drinks in Union Station's food court, we quickly located the capitol building and continued to walk along next to the National Mall...

until I thought for sure we would not be able to make it. It was so hot. I was trying to walk in every area of shade we were afforded, but I felt it was just too hot and arduous for the baby. If we were spending all day in D.C., actually visiting museums and things along the way, then walking would have been fine. But our intended destination was over 2 1/2 miles away; this was not the day to walk the whole stretch.

The pedi-cabs looked fun, so we opted for that. Unfortunately, it dawned on me that this was Memorial Day weekend. In our nation's capital. Not the best planning. Traffic was hideous, and it was still really hot in the pedi-cab. We got a nice breeze, though, when he was able to pedal fast.

Our driver pulled over so I was able to take a picture of the White House. He also pointed out other points of interest.

THIS was the main reason I wanted to take Dash to D.C. He had learned about the Lincoln Memorial in a class at our homeschool co-op, and he came home to tell me all about it. He wanted to show me the picture on the penny, and then it came up during other lessons and conversations after that.

He explained to me in different terms 

that it felt surreal to see it in person.

standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, 

facing the Washington Monument

closer shot of the Washington Monument

He immediately fell asleep when we got into the cab which took us back to Union Station! It was a good "what a fun two days" kind of tired.

To be continued...

Science Post #1

What we have going on this year in science: 

My 12 year old is taking Apologia Swimming Creatures at our home school co-op. This is a terrific choice for Tornado (like Flying Creatures last year) because of the notebook journal style. He loves filling in the sections and cutting and pasting pictures from the Internet and magazines - and all of the lapbook type mini-books, etc.

Science is included in My Father's World curriculum, as well. It mainly takes you through this book, which has a little bit of many scientific subjects, ranging from the solar system to animals. The MFW curriculum set also came with other books and experiments, including Science in the Kitchen and Science with Air. And we'll be adding in other things we're interested in, of course. My 7 year old responds very well to science topics, so I have to put that to use.

It's funny because just as I was typing that above - I gasped; I had totally forgotten about this magnet set that came with the curriculum. I had just seen magnet sensory tubs around and wanted to do one. I guess we will be doing many more magnet experiments in the future, as well.

This is our magnet sensory box. 

The base is dry black beans and split peas.

They made predictions to whether each object listed on their assignment sheet (from a Mailbox Science magazine) would be magnetic or non-magnetic.

Then they tested their predictions. Even though I said he loves science, it's funny (or sad) how much Dash dislikes hypothesizing. He hates to be wrong. I can't get him to understand that's just what scientists do; they're sometimes wrong! He feels like a loser when his prediction doesn't match the result. Sigh.

Later, they each had to find every object in the box (which was more than what was included on their prediction sheet) and put it on the appropriate page.

On their own they discovered the magnets worked through a glass or plastic cup.

Um, I think I see a couple of items in the wrong pile.

I printed off this magnet race game from another book, but it was a fail for us. They couldn't get the hang of keeping the magnet far enough away from the paperclip to move it without it jumping to the magnet. 

We watched this DVD, which included a lot of what we were talking about the past two weeks. There is so much packed into 55 minutes. They're going to have to watch it more to help absorb it all, but I have to say I learned (or relearned) so much, too. I want to order the rest of the series.

 Will a egg float better in salt water? We talked about density and molecules.

 Will it float?
They chose 8-10 objects to test.

predictions then results

This experiment was a little precarious. Oranges should float with the peel but sink without the peel. They, of course, guessed that it would be the opposite and were surprised of the results. We used clementines because when I tried the orange ahead of time it wasn't floating very well. There are tiny air pockets in an orange peel causing it to have a lower density. To create a better distinction I should have used a deeper pool of water, which I think was the problem.

Ryan used Legos as a good example to explain molecules/atoms. On another day we talked more about density. They poured water, syrup, then oil in a glass and watched the layers of syrup, water, then oil form.

They took it further by adding food coloring to another cup of water and watching the oil rise.

After we read the solar system lesson in First Encyclopedia of Science, they worked on their own solar system (kit from Wal-Mart).

We still need to paint the base. I was happy for Pluto still representin'! I taught them "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles" but told them now it's really "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles."